Israel
strategy broadens to reach Christian WorldBy Ray
Hanania, a Palestinian American writer and journalist. He is coordinator
of the Chicago Association of Arab Journalists and Communicators, publishes
the Arab American View Newspaper and is involved in Christian and Muslim
Palestinian American organizations, 17 April 2001

Most Christians in the United
States don't even know what's going on during this Intifadah. Few of them
even realize that among the Palestinians being killed are Christians. Normally,
Christians stand up for their fellow Christians. In fact, the Christian
World fought a world war for some 500 years to "protect" Christian interests
in the Holy Land. We called that the Crusades.

American Christians are a real unusual
breed of people. They hate Muslims and view Islam as a threat, but they
hate most Jews, too. Remember, it was the United States that fought against
allowing Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler's Nazi policies of extermination
to come to this country.

The Israelis have always know this.
But they need American support. And they recognize that although Americans
hate Jews, Americans hate Muslims, more. They are familiar with the Jewish
people and very unfamiliar with Islam.

How else can you explain why Americans
don't mind a national policy that results in the killing of thousands of
babies in Iraq every year? As long as these victims are either Muslim or
are not viewed as being Christian, the Americans don't care.

But that attitude could easily change
as many Christians in the United States and elsewhere realize that among
those Muslim Palestinians that the Israelis are murdering, are many Christian
Palestinians, too!

That's right. Among the people Israeli
soldiers are killing are Christians. Not just Muslims.

Prior Israeli governments have managed
this delicate situation in the past, but it seems to be getting out of
hand under Ariel Sharon. You see, Sharon hates Christians as much as he
hates Muslims. He is a fanatic and a member of the Israeli settler movement.
These are people who willingly left the comforts of their real homes in
Europe, Asia, the United States and even other Arab countries, to live
on a rocky hilltop in 110 degree heat and raise their children with only
the bare essentials of life.

That's not devotion to a religion,
but true Judaism does not condone what Israeli settlers are doing to the
Palestinians. It is called the ultimate in fanaticism.

So Sharon doesn't mind enforcing
policies that not only kill Muslim Palestinians, but also many Christian
Palestinians, too. And this has caused some Israelis to be concerned.

Sharon's policies have resulted in some of the worst destruction to the
Christian Palestinian population in Israel's brutal 53 year history.

And that has come to the attention
of the usually silent Christian World. They didn't like the fact
that Bethlehem was being destroyed during the height of the 2000 year anniversary
of the Birth of Christianity, even though they did little to stop it. Incidents
of Israeli attacks against Christians are increasing.

In response, the Israelis have designed
a campaign to off-set the problem. They are actually starting to
pretend like they care about Christian Palestinians, too.

And the most recent campaign involves
the case of Yussef Samir, a Christian Arab who betrayed his people not
only by working for Israel, but by also working against the Palestinians.

According to the Israelis, the Egyptian-born
Samir "defected" to Israel three decades ago after writing a series of
articles critical of then-President Gamal Abdul Nasser. He later obtained
Israeli citizenship and worked as a journalist for Israel Radio's Arabic
department, which pounded out daily doses of anti-Arab propaganda and lies.

With the backing of many Israelis,
his daughter, Chaya, managed to become the only Arab to achieve celebrity
status in Israel, and is known to the world not as a famous "Arab" singer,
but as an "Israeli" singer.

Chaya, aided by Sharon's government,
recently led a delegation to meet with leaders of 70 European Christian
church leaders. She didn't go there to urge them to protect the Christians
whose homes are being destroyed in the Christian areas of Palestine, or
to protect the Christian Palestinian children who are being murdered by
fanatic Israeli settlers.

No, Chaya Samir urged them only to
denounce the Palestinians and the PNA, which she asserts arrested her father
in late March.

It's amazing to me that the Israeli
"Defense" Forces, which have been busy assassinating Palestinian leaders
and destroying Palestinian civilian homes, had the time to investigate
his disappearance and conclude that he was in PNA custody.

I am all for the Christian World
stepping into this conflict. After all, the first Christians were, in fact,
Palestinians. And Christianity was born in suffering caused by the Biblical
Hebrews. Its origins include some of the best known Palestinian towns of
Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem.

So, why aren't the Christians of
the World more involved in speaking out against Israeli atrocities?

It has a lot to do with perceptions and the manipulation of the news media.
Israel does a great job of converting the murder of an innocent Palestinian
into a form of justifiable corporal punishment.

If a Palestinian blows up a bomb
in the heart of Tel Aviv, the Israelis punish the entire Palestinian community.
While the Israeli soldiers officially go around destroying homes, arresting
civilians and beating and killing suspects, the fanatic Israeli settlers
just go out and murder Palestinians like sport. And when an Israeli settler
murders a Palestinian, no one thinks twice about it.

We Palestinians want the conflict
to end. We want Israel to have itssecurity and we want the violence
to end.

But we also want our security. We
want our land back. All of the land. All of the West Bank. All of the Gaza
Strip. And all of that small part of Jerusalem known as "Arab East Jerusalem"
that the Israelis captured by war in 1967.

We also want the Christian World
to get involved.

Not just to determine the whereabouts
of self-hater Yussef Samir, the father of a famous "Israeli" singer, but
to also show concern for those Christians and Muslims who are victims of
Israeli atrocities and war crimes.